US Southern Command said on Wednesday that the US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its accompanying warships have arrived in the Caribbean amid US threats of a potential attack on Cuba.
“Welcome to the Caribbean, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group!” SOUTHCOM said on X, adding that the Nimitz is joined by the destroyer USS Gridley and the oiler USNS Patuxent.
The command said that the warships are the “epitome of readiness and presence, unmatched reach and lethality, and strategic advantage.”
The US appears to be following the Venezuela playbook with its buildup against Cuba as the US Department of Justice on Wednesday indicted former President Raul Castro, setting up a pretext for an attack similar to the one launched against Caracas on January 3 to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Ahead of the attack on Venezuela, the US deployed a significant number of warships to the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, which then deployed to the Middle East to take part in the US-Israeli war against Iran. The US has also been ramping up military surveillance flights near Cuba, something that also happened off the coast of Venezuela in the months leading up to the attack.
The Nimitz and its strike group are in the region under a deployment dubbed “Southern Seas 2026” and were just in Brazil, where they conducted joint drills with the Brazilian navy in the Atlantic Ocean. The Nimits was scheduled to be decommissioned this month, but it has been pushed back to March 2027.
